Professors and speakers

Dr. Emily Skinner is a distinguished workplace conflict resolution consultant and coach with deep expertise in organizational and leadership development and conflict management systems. She has extensive experience in consulting, training, and conflict resolution coaching across private, non-profit, government, and higher education sectors. Dr. Skinner specializes in designing communication and conflict management trainings and intervention methods that effectively connect theory with practice, helping leaders and managers make data-driven decisions and manage conflict proactively.

Currently, Dr. Skinner is the President of the Board of Directors at the Association for Conflict Resolution – Greater New York, where she leads initiatives in fundraising, event planning, and community engagement. Dr. Skinner is also an experienced educator. She has taught Sociology at Kean University and Hudson County Community College, creating engaging simulations and activities to help students understand complex concepts like leadership and groupthink. Currently, she supports students and professors in a hybrid setting at Columbia University’s Conflict Resolution and Negotiation graduate program.

Anastasia Soare is a globally recognized entrepreneur, philanthropist, and innovator in the beauty industry, celebrated as the founder and CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills, one of the world’s leading cosmetics brands. Anastasia revolutionized beauty standards by pioneering techniques and products that empower individuals to enhance their natural features.

Her vision and commitment to excellence have made her brand a household name in over 100 countries and beloved by celebrities, influencers, and beauty enthusiasts worldwide. Beyond her entrepreneurial achievements, Anastasia is a passionate advocate for education, mentorship, and female empowerment. She frequently shares her experiences on leadership, creativity, and innovation, inspiring young professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs to pursue their ambitions with confidence and resilience. Her journey from emigrating to the United States to building a global empire, reflects determination, adaptability, and a relentless pursuit of excellence, offering invaluable lessons on turning challenges into opportunities.

Florin Ilie worked in banking, consulting, and diplomacy, and is passionate about growing sector ecosystem networks, teaching, and building online financial modeling tools. Previous roles held include Head of Financial Markets Sales for CEE, CFO Retail Banking, Head of Equity Markets. Florin was ranked top 3 CEE financials analyst by Thompson-Reuters and acted as Romania’s Eurodiplomat before the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council. Florin has been teaching financial strategy and communication at the Bucharest International School of Management, ASE Bucharest, Maastricht School of Management, and Harvard University. He co-founded Aspen Institute Romania and the Harvard Club of Romania and Moldova.

In his spare time, he likes to build online financial modeling tools to help people and businesses get ahead in life, such as www.fundamental.ro, www.comodel.com. Florin earned a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University, Master in European Politics & Policy from the University of Manchester, PhD and BA in Economics from ASE Bucharest, and took post-graduate courses at the University of Alcala and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Florin Petrescu is a Senior Faculty Member and Client Solutions Partner at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), a global authority in leadership development. With over two decades of experience across human resources, banking, and technology, Florin specializes in driving culture change, enhancing leadership capabilities, and boosting team effectiveness within complex, fast-moving organizations.

His work spans industries such as engineering, pharmaceuticals, and tech, where he has helped build high-performance leadership teams and resilient organizations that thrive amid uncertainty. Florin’s approach combines deep expertise in talent analytics, transformation, and engagement with a strong belief that culture, talent, and leadership are the true engines of sustainable success. Passionate about unlocking potential, he empowers leaders and teams to exceed their business goals through practical, strategic interventions rooted in innovation and impact.

Janet Martinez is Director of the Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution and Senior Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, where she teaches advanced negotiation, dispute system design and alternative dispute resolution law, practice & policy. Martinez practiced corporate law for ten years before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she did research, writing, and teaching in various aspects of negotiation at Harvard University’s graduate schools of business, law, and government.

While in Cambridge, professor Martinez was Senior Associate for the Consensus Building Institute, a nonprofit provider of dispute resolution services in the public and private sectors, both domestic and international. There, she facilitated policy dialogues for the United Nations, World Trade Organization, and Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Janet Martinez’ current research and consulting focus on dispute system design (with Lisa Amsler and Stephanie Smith: Dispute System Design, Stanford University Press forthcoming 2020), sustainable groundwater management in California, online dispute resolution, and international comparative dispute resolution. Martinez holds a B.S. in Bacteriology & Public Health from Washington State University, J.D. from Golden Gate University, Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, and Ph.D. from MIT.

Professor Martinez joined Aspire 2020 and will be teaching the Aspire programs for the very first time in 2021.

Andreea Gorbatai is Assistant Professor in the Management of Organizations at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. Beforehand, Andreea received her PhD in Organizational Behaviour from Harvard Business School. She holds an MA in Sociology from Harvard University and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Dartmouth College. Andreea has experience teaching Harvard College’s undergraduate course in Social Entrepreneurship and in Harvard University’s Summer School Programs.

Elisabeta Moraru is Country Manager of Google Romania. Ms. Moraru has joined Google Romania team in 2012, as the Industry Head having as a main activity advising customers and partners to use solutions in order to improve online performance. She has actively supported the introduction of digital solution in the educational system and the media.

Elisabeta Moraru has initiated different programs dedicated for school improvement, universities and the media. Between 2004 and 2007 she was employed at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then from 2007 until 2011 she was a Microsoft employee, followed by Xerox from February 2011 and March 2012, thus proving her expertise.

Prior to joining HEC Paris, Roxana Barbulescu worked as Assistant Professor of Management at McGill University and Visiting Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She teaches negotiations and leadership and directs the Collaboration Module in the McGill-HEC Montreal EMBA program.

She has research expertise in careers and job mobility, particularly among managerial and professional workers. Roxana holds a PhD in Management from INSEAD and a BA in Economics from Stanford University.

Anca Harasim is the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bucharest. She was member of the Board of Directors at United Way and studied at Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.

Steve Schelhammer is the CEO of Phytel, a healthcare IT company recently bought by IBM. He is a healthcare entrepreneur and he received the Ernst & Young Regional Entrepreneur of the Year Award for his work at Accordant, a previous company that he founded. He later sold Accordant for 100 million dollars.

Tim Schigel is the founder and CEO of ShareThis. Before starting this company, he was managing director at Blue Chip Venture Company, where he coordinated investments in market leaders on marketing and technology, such as Advertising.com, Nielsen Buzzmetrics or Third Screen Media. Tim was an international consultant and led innovative projects for Apple Computers, Hitachi, Hallmark Cards, Motorola and Procter & Gamble.

Lucian is a prominent media figure, who developed his career based on journalism. Former director of Ziarul Financiar, the most respected Romanian publication, Lucian is presently involved in entrepreneurship working with companies such as Sign Factor and Alter Media. Lucian Mandruta is a graduate of the Faculty of Journlism and Communications of the University of Bucharest.

In 2015, Alis Anagnostakis founded the School of Tranformational Coaching “Mind Learners”, which was rated at level ACSTH by the International Coaching Federation. Over the years, Alis developed her nown training methodology focused on self-awareness, self-analysis and introspection, delivering various workshops on “Motivation”, “Authenticity”, “Confidence” or “Happiness”.

Andrei Popescu is a Master Trainer for the Romanian franchise of “Dale Carnegie”, which deals with personalized solutions’ provision and development for local clients – one of the largest multinational companies across the country. He has been involved in the training and professional development field for over 10 years.

Before joining Dale Carnegie in Romania, Andrei had worked in the media industry, leading a departmental team for one of the largest daily publications in the country, at the same time founding a unique concept on the market.

Bogdan Georgescu is the founder and former CEO of Bookster, a modern library for companies. Before starting Bookster, Bogdan ran the Real Estate Consultancy firm Colliers International for more than 10 years. He has also done training courses at Harvard Business School.

Mariana Gheorghe is the first woman CEO of Petrom. She also worked for the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, first as Associate Banker, Main Banker and then as Senior Banker for Southeastern Europe, Caspian Region and Caucasus.

Don Lothrop is an American who fell in love with Romania. He is the founder of the “Romania One” foundation and online platform, which fights to strengthen Romania’s civil society. According to Don, his foundation wishes to “give back Romanians their dignity and confidence that they so truly need”, in order to rebuild the Romanian society.

Dragos Nicolaescu has more than 20+ years of experience in solving executive issues, managing international teams and founding several companies to offer integrated mentoring, coaching and consultancy, focused on measurable long-term changes. He spent the last couple of years coaching over 300 individual clients to improve their professional life and mentoring over 70 startups in creating a sustainable business from their passion, using the Lean Startup methodology.